Small adjustments in employee behaviour are profoundly changing our organisations

Throughout the summer, a primary focus of my work has been on the relationship between performance and employee wellbeing as the old ROI metrics are getting harder to prove. After decades of work in this space, it feels like the return on investment is more difficult for employers to calculate as the wellbeing market continues to be built on smoke and mirrors. The evidence used is sketchy, the platforms get low engagement and there are quite a few fibs knocking around.

The number of times I've had cause to call out the frankly wild claims in wellbeing providers pitch decks and fact check the outrageous claims of how apps can stop stress or solve the mental health problem is huge. But from the research I've been doing, I think there is a better way to show how better funding for employee wellbeing is a cost - or rather an investment - worth making.

At last month's Reward & Employee Benefits Association (REBA) Wellbeing Congress, I distilled months of research into one 15 minute talk. In 'Productivity isn't a dirty word', I spoke about what makes a high performer, the impact wellbeing has on productivity and some of the surprising ways we can use wellbeing support to drive better performance outcomes for our organisations. A far more compelling ROI than reducing absence rates in my opinion.

I've had some great feedback on the talk and its prompted some pretty big American brands to get in touch to discuss it, so I hope its worth watching.

Low intensity wellbeing interventions

I've spoken about these in this newsletter before, but using wellbeing apps to drive very small, incremental changes in behaviour, or delivering short bursts of task-orientated instructions have a growing and compelling evidence base.

For example, practicing deep breathing can improve our decision making abilities. Stress impairs ours everyday decision making in the workplace, and specific breathing techniques can help to lower that stress response and allow participants in one study to provide more correct answers on a task. Super simple to do, takes minutes - maybe even seconds - but drives better performance.

Even just taking the time to listen to natural sounds - even when those sounds aren't real - has been found to impact performance. In one study , there was a pretty seismic difference between people's score on a task when listening to recorded natural sounds like birds chirping. I'm listening to the sounds of waves crashing as I type this newsletter. The effect of this simple practice is quite fascinating.

I would strongly recommend to anyone focussed on employee wellbeing to consider the performance angle of getting this right. Positive employee wellbeing in our organisations is no longer about reducing sick days or mitigating risk, its about how we use wellbeing to create better organisations. I suspect seeing wellbeing as a driver of success will help to not only get the attention the wellbeing function needs, but also the elusive investment. The fact that we can change our fortunes as employers and employees by adding a few minutes of small tasks to our day is quite frankly, remarkable.

Benefex will shortly be releasing its new employee wellbeing platform to the world. A platform built on compelling and modern research, evidence and built by a team of psychologists and health experts. A platform designed to not eradicate poor health and wellbeing, but instead to drive better organisational performance. If you'd like to know more or sign up for the invite list for our launch, please get in touch.

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Until next month....